City Beat: And you thought the election was heated

November 29th, 2012by Barry Courter in Life Entertainment

Thirty-seven days. If I'm doing my math right, we will all have 37 days to read, hear, argue and, in some cases, fight over who will win the national championship in college football. If only we could put this much effort into finding a cure for cancer or fixing our economy.

I love college football, and I suppose part of the fun is being able to check your brain at the beer tap in order to blindly hold onto the idea that your favorite team is best in all the land. Taking it a step further and trying to argue that point without said brain is another matter.

Being able to debate with another degree-holding fan over who is going to win based on things like common opponents, strength of schedule, mascots, past titles won, team colors, luck and whatever other ammo one can find is fun.

For a minute.

It's when things get heated and/or personal that it quits being fun. What is curious is that in my whole life, I've never seen anyone in such a discussion swayed by the other person's reasoning. It happens about as often as a Democrat turns Republican, or vice versa.

Not one time has someone said, "You know what, my team is going to lose based on your salient points and sound arguments. I really thought that because our mascot could whip yours, we would win. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways."

I once heard a caller to a local radio station explain to the host that the Tennessee Vols would beat Notre Dame because of the teams' uniform colors. ND wears green, a known Catholic color, she explained, and the Vols wear orange, which is understood to be a Protestant color. The Protestants would prevail, she argued, because the orange-loving Vols would be so riled by the Catholic green they would smite the Irish. Didn't happen that day, but she believed, nay, KNEW that it would.

* If by some chance you missed the first three opportunities to see Signal Mountain native Rachel Boston star in "Holiday High School Reunion," fret not. Lifetime will re-air the movie five more times by Christmas Eve.

It will air Saturday, Dec. 8, at 6 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 9, at 11 a.m., Sunday, Dec. 23, at 7 and 11 p.m. and Monday, Dec. 24, at 4 p.m.